Tucson polls open 6 am to 7 pm for Prop. 414 election

Tucson voters have until 7 p.m. Tuesday to cast their ballots in the special election for Prop. 414, aka the Safe & Vibrant City Initiative.

Prop 414. would increase the sales tax in the city limits by a half-cent per dollar to raise an estimated $80 million a year, or $800 over the 10-year lifespan of the tax, with about two-thirds of the revenue going to boost public safety and one third going to social programs to help low-income Tucsonans and the homeless.

About a quarter city voters have already returned their ballots.

The proposition has been supported by police and fire unions, Tucson Mayor Regina Romero and the Tucson City Council, and some local business leaders, who say the spending would improve public safety and help alleviate problems related to homelessness, housing affordability and other social ills that plague Tucson. It’s been opposed by business organizations including Tucson Metro Chamber, Southern Arizona Leadership Council, Tucson Association of Realtors, who say the city should spend money on the proposed program but object to raising the sales tax to do so. In addition, some homeless advocates oppose Prop 414 because it dedicates too much money to the police department.

Voters can cast ballots or drop off early ballots they did not return through the mail at any of the seven vote centers set up in Tucson:

• Department of Housing and Community Development, 310 N. Commerce Park Loop
• Morris K. Udall Regional Center, 7200 E. Tanque Verde Rd.
• Donna R. Liggins Recreation Center, 2160 N. 6th Ave.
• William Clements Recreation Center, 8155 E. Poinciana Dr.
• El Pueblo Senior Center, 101 W. Irvington Rd.
• Parks and Recreation Administration at Randolph Park, 900 S. Randolph Way
• City Clerk’s Elections Support Facility, 800 E. 12th St.,

Voters can also drop off completed ballots at any Pima County Recorder’s Office branch offices between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m., but replacement ballots will not be available there:

• Downtown, 240 N. Stone Ave.
• Elections branch office, 6550 S. Country Club Rd.
• East Side office, 6920 E. Broadway (closed for lunch from noon to 1 p.m.)

The City Clerk’s Office mailed more than 305,000 ballots to Tucson voters on Feb. 12. As of Monday, 78,253 voters had returned their ballots, for a turnout of roughly 25 percent, according to city data.

The first election results, based on the vote-by-mail ballots that have been tabulated after they went through a verification process, should be available shortly after 8 p.m. Tuesday. That will be the only release of results on Tuesday, with officials continuing to count ballots and release results later this week, according to City Clerk Suzanne Mesich.

Mesich said it will take several days to
count all the ballots because some voters will drop off vote-by-mail
ballots on Election Day. Those ballots will have to go through the
process of matching signatures on the ballot envelopes to voter records
before the Pima County Recorder’s Office can transfer them to the City
Clerk’s Office for tabulation.

What’s in Prop. 414?

Public safety spending – including new
employees, equipment and vehicles for the police and fire departments as
well as investments for the 911 and 311 call centers – accounts for
about two-thirds of the spending in Prop. 414, while another third would
go toward services for the homeless, opioid addicts and programs for
low-income Tucsonans, such as job training classes, mortgage
down-payment assistance and childcare scholarships.

Here’s how the city breaks down the funding “buckets”:

$246
million (or roughly 31 percent of the $800 million) for capital
investments for first responders, including new police cars, new
firetruck and safety equipment,, new or remodeled police and fire
stations, among other public safety improvements.

$182 million (or
23 percent) for more cops, firefighters, community service officers,
911 and 311 operators and the city’s new CSARC system, a high-tech
surveillance that taps into a network of public and private cameras and
is sophisticated enough to detect the location of gunshots and probable
locations of bullet casings.

$140 million (or 17 percent) for
affordable housing initiatives, including gap financing for affordable
housing projects, a fund to assist existing homeowners whose aging homes
need repair, dollars to fix up affordable housing rental units,
downpayment assistance for low to moderate income residents, a facility
to help opiate addicts kick their habits, low-barrier shelters for the
homeless and similar programs.

$134  million (or 17 percent) for
“community resilience” programs designed to reduce violent crimes,
provide funding for childcare programs, job training, youth employment,
cultural programs, cleanup efforts, urban forest maintenance, shade
structures for bus stops and similar programs.

$98 million (or 12
percent) for technology designed to enhance public safety, including
body cams for cops, updated communication systems for first responders, a
new plane and helicopter for the police department and assorted
accessories.

Tucson sales tax rates

If voters approve the tax, sales tax rates in Tucson would increase to 9.2%.

Tucson
currently has a total sales tax rate of 8.7%, which means shoppers pay
8.7 cents per dollar for purchases excluding food and medicine.

That 8.7% includes:

• 5% state sales tax
• 0.6% statewide sales tax dedicated to education
• 0.5% countywide sales tax for the the Regional Transportation Authority
• 2% city sales tax for general operations
• 0.5% city sales tax dedicated to improving streets that voters approved in May 2022
• 0.1 percent tax for city zoo improvements narrowly approved by voters in 2017

The
RTA half-cent sales tax will expire next year and local officials are
currently drafting a 20-year renewal plan that they hope to send to
voters in November or next spring.

The city’s half-cent sales tax
for transportation improvements and the .1 percent sales for the zoo
are each set to expire 10 years after implementation.